February Is Heart Health Month

• Heart disease is still our #1 killer disease in America.  
• 80 million Americans have high cholesterol.

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Everyone understands the importance of a healthy heart, but maintaining one can prove difficult. Cardiovascular health can be compromised by diet, genetics, a sedentary lifestyle, smoking, and an array of other factors. Moreover, our bodies are often deficient in substances critical to healthy heart function.

Following a good prevention program of exercise, a diet high in fiber, low in fat, and keeping our cholesterol level at 180 or below, can significantly reduce our risk. Including 6 to 9 fresh vegetables (in soups and salads) every day ... nature’s primary source of vitamins and minerals, especially antioxidants ... is essential for heart health. The following supplements may also help:

Top 10 Supplements for a Healthy Heart

CoQ 10 - which supports energy production in the cells and is especially important for heart health. Increases oxygenation of heart tissue. Strengthens the heart muscle.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids – reduces clots in blood vessels, lowers triglycerides, and raises HDL (good cholesterol). Helps prevent hardening of the arteries.

Probiotics – lower cholesterol in three ways: limit cholesterol production in the liver, the probiotics create an acid environment which converts cholesterol into a form the body cannot absorb, probiotics consume the cholesterol (like pac-man).

B-Complex - The New England Journal of Medicine reports that high homocysteine levels create a 30 times greater chance of heart attack, no matter what our cholesterol level is. B-complex with folic acid protects from having high levels of homocysteines. 90% of Americans are deficient in B-complex. Stress, sugar and processed foods rob the body of B vitamins.

Vita-E – Heart disease risk factors are reduced by 30%-40% when taking 400 IU of vitamin E. (That’s four pints of peanut butter). Strengthens the immune system and heart muscle, improves circulation, and destroys free radicals.

Calcium-Magnesium – Studies show that calcium & magnesium help balance the delicate ratio of minerals in our cells that affect blood pressure and proper heart function. Vital for a healthy heart.

Vita-C – Tufts University recently reported that higher levels of vitamin C relate to higher HDL (the good stuff). Extremely important as a regulator of high blood pressure.

Garlic – It lowers cholesterol and has been shown to lower blood pressure, triglycerides and blood glucose in diabetics. Promotes good circulation.

The last two products are specific to Shaklee. Although I always recommend the Shaklee products, I am sure there are other high quality products out there (not drug store brands), that would produce the same results. But these two products are very unique and highly effective:

Cholesterol Reduction Complex - a proprietary formulation with clinically proven ingredients that help prevent the absorption of cholesterol and lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. It contains plant sterols and stanols that, when added to a healthy diet, have been shown in numerous studies to significantly reduce LDL cholesterol.

Fiber Plan Drink Mix – has been clinically tested and proven at Stanford University School of Medicine to lower cholesterol. One serving is the equivalent of 20 slices of whole wheat bread, 6 apples, or 3 1/2 bowls of oatmeal.

 In addition to the ten supplements listed above, You also want to be sure that you are taking

• a good-quality multi vitamin/mineral product - shortage of levels of basic nutrients will put blood lipids out of balance.

• a high-quality soy protein powder - the heart is a muscle and muscles need protein. The American Heart Association, in a November 13, 2000 press release, recommended using soy protein to reduce saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet.

I hope you find this information helpful. If you would like to discuss a program specific to your goals, please feel free to contact me.

What are some of the things you are doing to maintain heart health?

BPA Blues

This is an excellent review of some of the latest studies on BPA and their results.  Dr. Chaney makes a good case for a preventative appraoch to health management.

By Dr. Stephen Chaney, PhD

You've heard the saying "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" - and sometimes we don't really know what we are preventing until after the fact.


Toxic chemicals such as BPA are a case in point!  Bisphenol A or BPA is a chemical additive that has been added to clear plastic bottles for years, but we are just now starting to learn how toxic it is.

Recent studies have suggested that BPA increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes and liver disease...
...and the news keeps getting worse!

One recent study showed that BPA prevents the formation of nerve connections in the portion of the brain that controls formation of memories and control of moods (Leranth et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 105:14187-191, 2008) - in short that BPA may negatively affect brain function.

That had been previously shown in mice, but what makes this study so concerning was that the authors demonstrated the same effect in monkeys - and at doses that the EPA considers to be "safe" for humans.

The second study in the August 14, 2008 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives showed that BPA suppresses a hormone called adiponectin which is responsible for maintaining normal weight and preventing the development of metabolic syndrome - a precursor to diabetes.

Those data suggest that BPA may increase the risk of both obesity and diabetes.

All of these potential health consequences of BPA exposure are especially concerning in light of a recent study showing that 90% of the US population has BPA in their urine.

So does that mean that it is too late - that there is nothing that we can do to prevent the damage caused by an environmental toxin that we were all exposed to but did not know about until recently?

The answer is no.

As I pointed out in a previous "Health Tips From the Professor" (Bad Effects Of Additives In Plastics, archived at: http://www.socialmarketingconnection.com ) those of you who have been taking a preventative approach and making sure that you had plenty of folic acid and genistein (a phytonutrient found in soy protein) in your diet may have protected yourself from the bad effects of BPA.

So, my word of advice to all of you is follow a holistic approach to health that includes weight control, exercise, good diet and supplementation.

It will help protect you from the dangers that you know about and the ones that you don't.

To Your Health!

Dr. Stephen G Chaney

The Vitamin Scam

In the Reader’s Digest April 2010 issue an article appeared which implied that vitamins are a scam. (The Vitamin Scam). I have reprinted a response to that article from Dr. Stephen G. Chaney

Steve Chaney PhD Dr. Chaney holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Duke University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from UCLA.


Currently he’s a professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina where he teaches first year medical students and has headed an active cancer research program for 30 years.


Dr. Chaney has published over 95 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals, plus 12 reviews and two chapters on nutrition for one of the leading biochemistry textbooks for medical students today. He’s also been named “Teacher of the Year” several times by the first year medical students and currently holds a Medical Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professorship.


Lots of you have asked me to comment on the recent Reader's Digest article called "The Vitamin Scam". If you believed that article you'd think that, except for vitamin D, all supplements were worthless - and they might even kill you.

The sad thing is that I've written about this many times before...yet the myths keep resurfacing. It's sort of like "Whack a Mole". You whack one and another pops up somewhere else!

But let me start at the beginning: The author is a journalist - not a dietitian, a scientist or a doctor! And the role of journalists is to sell magazines, papers or TV ads. The more controversial the article the better. If it draws attention, it sells.

Some critics have said that journalists "never let the truth get in the way of a good story". But that is, perhaps, not entirely fair. It's just that journalists seldom have the time or inclination to write about the subtleties of the science or point out that there are two sides to the story.


So let me make a few comments about each of the so-called myths that were "exposed" by the Reader’s Digest article.


Myth #1: A multivitamin can make up for a bad diet:


The author quotes one study that suggests that multivitamin use did not decrease the risk of cancer, heart disease or stroke. There are several other studies that have come to the opposite conclusion, but the author failed to mention those. However, none of the studies are definitive by themselves, so I think that it is fair to say that the jury is still out on this one.


I also think that it is asking a lot of a multivitamin tablet to believe that it could significantly reduce the risk of disease by itself. For example, in the Landmark study the multivitamin user group had the same or higher risk of disease than the non-supplement user group. It was only the Shaklee group, who were taking a more comprehensive approach to supplementation, that had a significantly decreased incidence of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.


Myth #2: Vitamin C is a cold fighter.


The author says that vitamin C is ineffective in preventing the common cold, but does decrease the severity of the common cold. That is actually correct, but the author worded the findings in such a negative light that you might think "Why bother?"


Vitamin C is actually often fairly effective at decreasing the symptoms of the common cold. If the cold symptoms are mild enough that you hardly know you have it, that's good enough for me.


Myth #3: Vitamin pills can prevent heart disease:


The author quoted several studies in concluding that vitamin E and B vitamins were ineffective at decreasing the risk of heart disease. But the bottom line is that supplementation makes little or no difference in cardiovascular disease or deaths if you are at low risk of heart disease – but makes a significant difference if you are at high risk.


I'm not sure that we really needed a lot of high powered clinical studies to prove that. It's just common sense! By the way, are you really sure that you are at low risk of heart disease? The first symptom is often sudden death!


Myth #4: Vitamin pills can protect against cancer:


Again the author would have you believe that supplements were worthless in reducing cancer risk. Once again supplementation had little benefit in women at low risk of breast cancer, but made a big difference in women at high risk.


Myth #5: Hey, It Can't Hurt:


Here the author dredges up those old reports that claim that vitamin E, beta-carotene or folic acid might even do more harm than good.


I've covered this topic in some past articles like"What Can We Believe About Vitamin E?", "Folic Acid: Friend Or Foe?" and "Folic Acid Recommendations – Who Decides?"


There are several take home points here:


1. Most of those reports were single studies and were outweighed by many other studies showing no detrimental effects of those supplements.


2. Even if we take the supposed risks at face value, they are far outweighed by the other beneficial effects of those supplements.


3. Finally, if there are any detrimental effects they were probably due to use of high purity individual nutrients such as alpha-tocopherol alone, beta-carotene alone or folic acid alone.


In theory that can be a problem because they could interfere with the absorption of related nutrients like gamma-tocopherol or alpha-carotene - which have health benefits of their own.


Those risks would not apply to supplements that contained all of the vitamin E family, all of the carotenoids or all of the B vitamins in balance.

It is unfortunate that articles like this come out from time to time because they confuse and worry those people who might really benefit from supplementation. Of course, it's not just the anti-supplement group that writes misleading articles. There are just as many articles in the magazines hyping the latest "snake-oil" remedies.

The truth, as always, is hard to find.

To Your Health!

Dr. Stephen G Chaney

Thank you, Dr. Cheney for your wonderful incites.
If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me by filling out the request form on the right side bar.